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Circuit board with terminals arranged in a single row and disposed at board edges, cartridges with the circuit board, and methods for making same

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/990,634, filed Nov. 17, 2004, entitled “INK CARTRIDGE WITH SEMICONDUCTOR STORAGE DEVICE”, commonly owned and expressly incorporated herein by reference.

The present application relates to the art of printed circuit boards used in consumable products and, more particularly, to printed circuit boards, products carrying the circuit boards, and methods of their manufacture. The embodiments find particular application in conjunction with consumable printing products such as ink and toner cartridges and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the present exemplary embodiments are also amenable to other like applications and that the invention has broader use and can be applied in a wide range of consumer, industrial, and other products and devices including anywhere printed circuit boards are used or fabricated for any purpose.

In recent years, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have developed ink and toner cartridges which include electronic devices having memory units adapted to store data related to characteristics of the consumable products contained therein. As an example, several ink printer OEMs provide ink cartridges having memory devices which store data relating to the ink such as a date of manufacture and a quantity of ink contained within the cartridge as examples. Laser printer OEMs provide toner cartridges with memory devices holding data relating to electrical and chemical properties or characteristics of the toner contained within the cartridge bodies. The electronics on these consumable cartridges are typically carried on circuit boards which include a plurality of terminals arranged on a rigid or flexible circuit board substrate. The terminals are adapted to engage corresponding electrical contact tabs or the like extending from the target printer housing.

FIG. 1 schematically shows one such prior art printer and circuit board arrangement wherein a circuit board 1 has a first terminal row with a central ground terminal 2, a data I/O terminal 3 to a first side thereof, and a read/write signal terminal 4 to a second side thereof. A second row is located above the first terminal row and includes a power terminal 5 in its center, a clock signal terminal 6 to a first side thereof, and a chip select signal terminal 7 to a second side thereof. The associated printer device 8 is provided with a set of spaced-apart contact pins 9. Each of the contact pins 9 corresponds with one of the terminals 2-7 so that when the ink or toner cartridge is installed into a mounting portion of the printer, the terminals 2-7 come into contact with the corresponding contact pins 9 to enable power, data, etc. to be exchanged between the electronic storage device carried on the circuit board 1 and the printer 8.

However, in the past, there has been a problem with regard to electrical continuity being established between the contact pins 9 and the terminals 2-7 because of misalignment between the ink/toner cartridge and the printer. This is due in part because the terminals are provided in two separate rows on the circuit board 1. The use of two separate and distinct rows of terminals also makes the circuit board more expensive and difficult to manufacture. Other problems with this type of prior art circuit board is the arrangement of the power related terminals 5, 2 relative to the insertion direction of the board relative to the printer potentially causing a temporary shorting condition.

In order to provide an improvement over the circuit board 1 discussed above in connection with FIG. 1, a further prior art circuit board 10 as shown in FIG. 2 has been proposed. A through-hole 11 and a notch 12 are provided for assisting in alignment while positioning the circuit board 10 during installation thereof onto an ink or toner cartridge. A plurality of terminals 20-27 are provided on a front face of the circuit board wherein a substantially circular test terminal 20 is used to test a storage device on the opposite side of the board (not shown) when the circuit is shipped from the factory. The remaining terminals are arrayed in two rows including an upper row with an I/O terminal 21 for data input/output, a power supply terminal 22 for supplying power, and a chip select terminal 23 for input of a chip select signal for selectively activating the storage device. The terminals in the lower row include a ground terminal 24, a read/write control signal terminal 25, a clock terminal 26 for inputting a clock signal for use by the storage device, and a ground terminal 27.

This second prior art circuit board 10 is similar to the first prior art circuit board 1 discussed above in that it also includes two rows of spaced apart terminals. Thus, this board is expensive and difficult to manufacture and is prone to failure during use because of the persistent problem of potential misalignments between the various terminals on the circuit board and the corresponding contact pins of the associated printer. More particularly, slight misalignments between the contact pins on the printer and the terminals on the circuit device on a direction of insertion of the cartridge body into the printer can cause one or more registration errors resulting in an incomplete electrical circuit and thus, rendering the data in the memory unit to be useless.

Lastly, FIG. 3 shows yet a further prior art circuit board 30 having ground terminals 31, 37 located at two outermost edges of a single row of terminals, with the other terminals 32-36 being located further inwardly and between the ground terminals 31, 37. The ground terminals 31, 37 are spaced apart equally from a center power supply terminal 34. The remaining terminals include a read/write terminal 32, a clock signal terminal 33, an I/O signal terminal 35, and a chip select terminal 36. All of the terminals 31-37 have the same size.

Although the single row configuration shown in the prior art circuit 30 of FIG. 3 makes the circuit board easier to manufacture and has other benefits, the shape and arrangement of terminals on the circuit board makes the board prone to misalignment errors when engaged with the corresponding contact pins in the associated printer. The outer terminals 31, 37 are more prone to misalignment errors than the inner terminals 32-36 when the circuit board 30 is misaligned rotationally in the plane of the circuit board. Other problems have been encountered with this prior art circuit board such as, for example, lateral registration errors because the contacts are narrow. In order to accommodate several identically-sized contacts into a single row, each contact must be reduced in width proportionately to provide adequate separation between the contacts. The result is a narrow terminal having a reduced contact area, making it difficult to properly register with the corresponding terminals disposed in the associated printer.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,116 teaches a miniature semiconductor device package including outer connectors that are located along at least one peripheral edge thereof and that extend substantially across the height of the peripheral edge. Each outer connector is formed by severing a conductive via that extends substantially through a substrate blank, such as a silicon wafer, at a street located adjacent to an outer periphery of the semiconductor device of the package. Assemblies of these devices may include the packages in a stacked arrangement without height-adding connectors. However, devices taught in the '116 patent are substantially die-sized with respect to each of the X, Y, and Z axes. Thus, outer connectors as shown and described in the '116 patent have no practical purpose in the macro level of a printed circuit board as described above in connection with the prior art circuit boards and in relation to the environment and embodiments of the present application. More particularly, the present application relates to the art of printed circuit boards and to products carrying the circuit boards such as ink and toner cartridges which are selectively installed into marking devices and removed therefrom when the ink or toner marking material is spent. Thus, the circuit boards of the present application include contacts for selective electromechanical connection with associated pins of a printer as the circuit board and the printer are moved relative to each other. Only die-sized semiconductor device packages are taught in the '116 patent and, therefore, the connectors taught there are not fit for establishing selective electromechanical connection between members which are movable relative to each other during normal use thereof. The connectors of the '116 patent are adequate for connecting members which are not movable relative to each other during normal use thereof and are simply too small to be used on a macro scale as between printed circuit boards and associated printing apparatus.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,773,854 teaches a semiconductor device including a configuration having an array of logic gates electrically connected with an array of input/output (I/O) circuit devices, and also electrically connecting the array of connector pads by which electrical connection with the semiconductor device may be effected. The array of logic gates is linearly continuous and is unbounded along at least a first axis through to boundaries imposed on edges of the semiconductor wafer. The arrays of I/O circuit devices and connector pads are disposed adjacent, and in one embodiment parallel, to the array of logic gates. The integrated circuit structures are customized by cutting a selected length from a strip-like portion of the array of logic gates. Thus, one or more connector pads may lie close to a cut edge of the array of logic gates. However, the '854 patent has no practical use on a macro scale such as in connection with printed circuit boards of the type described in the present application. Rather, the '854 patent teaches components on a micro scale such as on the semiconductor wafer scale wherein relative movement between the connector pads and other associated connector members does not occur during normal use thereof.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a printed circuit board for use with cartridges holding consumable materials for printing and for a method of manufacturing same which is inexpensive, easy to manufacture, and provides good electrical contact between the electronics carried on the circuit board and contact pins disposed in the target printer to ensure power, control, and data signal integrity after the circuit board and contact pins are moved into relative operative alignment with each other. It follows also that there is correspondingly a need for a cartridge with such a circuit board as well as a method for manufacturing such a cartridge with the circuit board.

The embodiments of the present application include and provide terminals arranged at an edge of a substrate of a printed circuit board for establishing selective electromechanical connection between cartridge and printer devices as the devices are moved into relative operative engagement during normal use thereof.

In accordance with aspects illustrated herein, there is provided a circuit board for use with a storage device for storing data relating to marking material consumed during a printing operation. The circuit board includes a plurality of terminals thereon arranged on the circuit board along one axis thereof. A first set of the plurality of terminals on the circuit board are provided for read/write operations of the storage device to modify the data relating to the marking material. A second set of the plurality of terminals on the circuit board are for communicating electrical power to the storage device. At least two of the first set of the plurality of terminals are arranged on the circuit board at two edges thereof.

In accordance with a further aspect, the plurality of terminals disposed on the circuit board are arranged in a single row with at least two of the first set of the plurality of terminals being located at the outermost ends of the single row.

In accordance with yet a further aspect, the first set of the plurality of terminals includes a data I/O terminal, a power supply terminal, a chip select signal terminal, a read/write control signal terminal, and a clock signal terminal wherein the data I/O terminal and the chip select signal terminal are located at the outermost ends of the row.

In accordance with a further aspect illustrated herein, a method of manufacturing a circuit board includes defining first and second circuits having, respectively, first and second terminals. A substrate is provided and the first and second circuits are formed on the substrate with the first and second terminals being conjoined at a conjoined area. The substrate, together with the first and second terminals, is cut through the conjoined area. The cutting forms a first circuit board from a first portion of the substrate and a second circuit board from a second portion of the substrate. The first circuit board of the first portion of the substrate carries the first circuit with the first terminal extending to an edge of the first circuit board defined by the cutting. Similarly, the second circuit board of the second portion of the substrate carrying the second circuit is formed with the second terminal extending to an edge of the circuit board defined by the cutting.

In accordance with a further aspect, the providing includes providing a rigid circuit board.